Canadian Consumer Confidence Rises

WINNIPEG, March 28, 2012 /CNW/ - Consumer confidence is up in Canada to start 2012.  Today, the index stands at 75.3, compared to 72.6 in November.

• In total, 25% of Canadians believe they will be better off financially a year from now. Conversely, 15% feel they will be worse off a year from now.  This split remains relatively unchanged from November when it was 25%-14%.
  
  
• Just over one in ten Canadians (13%) sees good times ahead for the economy in the next twelve months.  Conversely, 22% see bad times over this same period.  Pessimism is down from November, when 30% saw bad times ahead in the short-term.
  
  
• Just over four in ten (42%) believe there will be good times financially for the Canadian economy in the next 5 years, while 45% believe there will be unemployment and recession over this period.  This represents minimal movement from November when the split was 42%-46%.
  
  
• Just over four in ten (43%) believe that now is a good time to make a major purchase.  Nationally, 38% believe it is a bad time to make such a purchase.  In November, this split was 41%-41%.
  
  
• In terms of how people perceive the last year, 16% indicated they were better off financially compared to a year ago, while 24% feel they are worse off.

	Better off a year from now	Worse off a year from now
One year outlook	25%	15%
	Good times	Bad times
1 year economic outlook	13%	22%
	Good times	Bad times
5 year economic outlook	42%	45%
	Good time	Bad time
Making a purchase	43%	38%
	Better off than a year ago	Worse off than a year ago
Compared to one yr ago	16%	24%

According to Senior Vice-President Doug Anderson, "While the confidence of Canadian consumers has improved slightly over the past quarter, the remarkable rebound in American consumer confidence has finally brought both countries to an equally optimistic outlook.  After years of consistently holding a more optimistic outlook than Canadians, the financial crisis of 2008 saw both confidence in both countries wane, but it affected the American confidence far more dramatically than it affected Canadian confidence.  This quarter appears to mark the closure of that downturn."

"An increase in consumer confidence is good to see," said Dave Ablett, Director, Advanced Financial Planning at Investors Group. "Canadians appear to have confidence in the Canadian economy and remain well-positioned to plan, save and invest for their future."

These data were gathered through teleVox, the company's national telephone omnibus survey for two weeks from February 16-26 2012 just over 2,000 completes.  A sample of the same size has a margin of error of 2.2%, 19 times out of 20.

Doug Anderson
Senior Vice-President 
[email protected]
harrisdecima.com

Ron Arnst
Director, Media Relations
Investors Group
[email protected]